Freezywater

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Freezywater
Middlesex

Hertford Road in Freezywater
Location
Grid reference: TQ361993
Location: 51°40’33"N, 0°1’50"W
Data
Post town: Enfield
Postcode: EN3
Dialling code: 020, 01992
Local Government
Council: Enfield
Parliamentary
constituency:
Enfield North

Freezywater is a neighbourhood in the very north-east of Middlesex, to the north of Enfield and running up to the border of Hertfordshire. It is found between Bullsmoor to the west, Enfield Lock to the east, Enfield Wash to the south, and Waltham Cross in Hertfordshire to the north. It became more than a hamlet at the beginning of the 20th century.

Freezywater occupies a zone straddling Hertford Road from its junction with Ordnance Road in the south to Bullsmoor Lane and the Holmesdale Tunnel overpass in the north. It is generally deemed to commence westwards from the Liverpool Street to Cheshunt railway.

Name

First recorded as Freezywater (1768) and Freezy Water (1819); the local farm choosing to name itself after its fishpond or duck pond which was liable to freeze.[1]

Local history

Freezywater in about 1880

For centuries this area was farmed principally by three farms and smallholdings, the greatest being Freezywater Farm which was long one of the manor's tenant farms, the others being Totteridge House and Freezywater House. In the 18th century this was called Freezy Water Farm, and later developments largely informally took on the name until the completion of its church in 1906.[2]

During Second World War, Chesterfield School was hit by a V1 flying bomb aimed for the Royal Small Arms Factory, about a mile and a half due east of the school. There was one fatality in the grounds, a teacher looking for her school children.[3]

The church of St George, a large red-brick gothic building designed by JEK and JP Cutts, was built between 1900 and 1906. A planned tower was never constructed. It replaced a temporary iron church on a site next to it which remained in use as a church hall for many years.[4]

References

  1. Mills, A. D. Oxford Dictionary of London Place Names (2001) p.85 ISBN 0-19-860957-4 Retrieved 22 October 2008
  2. A History of the County of Middlesex - Volume 5 pp 212-218: Enfield: Growth before 1850 (Victoria County History)
  3. http://www.bbc.co.uk/ww2peopleswar/stories/40/a7597740.shtml bbc.co.uk
  4. A History of the County of Middlesex - Volume 5 pp 245-249: Enfield: Churches (Victoria County History)